Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian.

The files provided by Edward Snowden illustrate the scale of co-operation between Silicon Valley and the intelligence agencies over the last three years. They also shed new light on the workings of the top-secret Prism program, which was disclosed by the Guardian and the Washington Post last month.

The documents show that:

• Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal;

• The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;

• The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide;

• Microsoft also worked with the FBI's Data Intercept Unit to "understand" potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases;

• In July last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSA boasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism;

• Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a "team sport".t

by Anonymous

reply 30

07/25/2013

The latest NSA revelations further expose the tensions between Silicon Valley and the Obama administration. All the major tech firms are lobbying the government to allow them to disclose more fully the extent and nature of their co-operation with the NSA to meet their customers' privacy concerns. Privately, tech executives are at pains to distance themselves from claims of collaboration and teamwork given by the NSA documents, and insist the process is driven by legal compulsion.

In a statement, Microsoft said: "When we upgrade or update products we aren't absolved from the need to comply with existing or future lawful demands." The company reiterated its argument that it provides customer data "only in response to government demands and we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers".

In June, the Guardian revealed that the NSA claimed to have "direct access" through the Prism program to the systems of many major internet companies, including Microsoft, Skype, Apple, Google, Facebook and Yahoo.

Blanket orders from the secret surveillance court allow these communications to be collected without an individual warrant if the NSA operative has a 51% belief that the target is not a US citizen and is not on US soil at the time. Targeting US citizens does require an individual warrant, but the NSA is able to collect Americans' communications without a warrant if the target is a foreign national located overseas.

Since Prism's existence became public, Microsoft and the other companies listed on the NSA documents as providers have denied all knowledge of the program and insisted that the intelligence agencies do not have back doors into their systems.

Microsoft's latest marketing campaign, launched in April, emphasizes its commitment to privacy with the slogan: "Your privacy is our priority."

But internal NSA newsletters, marked top secret, suggest the co-operation between the intelligence community and the companies is deep and ongoing.

The latest documents come from the NSA's Special Source Operations (SSO) division, described by Snowden as the "crown jewel" of the agency. It is responsible for all programs aimed at US communications systems through corporate partnerships such as Prism.

The files show that the NSA became concerned about the interception of encrypted chats on Microsoft's Outlook.com portal from the moment the company began testing the service in July last year.

Within five months, the documents explain, Microsoft and the FBI had come up with a solution that allowed the NSA to circumvent encryption on Outlook.com chats

A newsletter entry dated 26 December 2012 states: "MS [Microsoft], working with the FBI, developed a surveillance capability to deal" with the issue. "These solutions were successfully tested and went live 12 Dec 2012."

Two months later, in February this year, Microsoft officially launched the Outlook.com portal.

Another newsletter entry stated that NSA already had pre-encryption access to Outlook email. "For Prism collection against Hotmail, Live, and Outlook.com emails will be unaffected because Prism collects this data prior to encryption."

Microsoft's co-operation was not limited to Outlook.com. An entry dated 8 April 2013 describes how the company worked "for many months" with the FBI – which acts as the liaison between the intelligence agencies and Silicon Valley on Prism – to allow Prism access without separate authorization to its cloud storage service SkyDrive.

The document describes how this access "means that analysts will no longer have to make a special request to SSO for this – a process step that many analysts may not have known about".

The NSA explained that "this new capability will result in a much more complete and timely collection response". It continued: "This success is the result of the FBI working for many months with Microsoft to get this tasking and collection solution established."

A separate entry identified another area for collaboration. "The FBI Data Intercept Technology Unit (DITU) team is working with Microsoft to understand an additional feature in Outlook.com which allows users to create email aliases, which may affect our tasking processes."

The NSA has devoted substantial efforts in the last two years to work with Microsoft to ensure increased access to Skype, which has an estimated 663 million global users.

One document boasts that Prism monitoring of Skype video production has roughly tripled since a new capability was added on 14 July 2012. "The audio portions of these sessions have been processed correctly all along, but without the accompanying video. Now, analysts will have the complete 'picture'," it says.

Eight months before being bought by Microsoft, Skype joined the Prism program in February 2011.

According to the NSA documents, work had begun on smoothly integrating Skype into Prism in November 2010, but it was not until 4 February 2011 that the company was served with a directive to comply signed by the attorney general.

The NSA was able to start tasking Skype communications the following day, and collection began on 6 February. "Feedback indicated that a collected Skype call was very clear and the metadata looked complete," the document stated, praising the co-operation between NSA teams and the FBI. "Collaborative teamwork was the key to the successful addition of another provider to the Prism system."

ACLU technology expert Chris Soghoian said the revelations would surprise many Skype users. "In the past, Skype made affirmative promises to users about their inability to perform wiretaps," he said. "It's hard to square Microsoft's secret collaboration with the NSA with its high-profile efforts to compete on privacy with Google."

The information the NSA collects from Prism is routinely shared with both the FBI and CIA. A 3 August 2012 newsletter describes how the NSA has recently expanded sharing with the other two agencies.

The NSA, the entry reveals, has even automated the sharing of aspects of Prism, using software that "enables our partners to see which selectors [search terms] the National Security Agency has tasked to Prism".

The document continues: "The FBI and CIA then can request a copy of Prism collection of any selector…" As a result, the author notes: "these two activities underscore the point that Prism is a team sport!"

by Anonymous

reply 1

07/11/2013

In its statement to the Guardian, Microsoft said:

[quote]We have clear principles which guide the response across our entire company to government demands for customer information for both law enforcement and national security issues. First, we take our commitments to our customers and to compliance with applicable law very seriously, so we provide customer data only in response to legal processes.

[quote]Second, our compliance team examines all demands very closely, and we reject them if we believe they aren't valid. Third, we only ever comply with orders about specific accounts or identifiers, and we would not respond to the kind of blanket orders discussed in the press over the past few weeks, as the volumes documented in our most recent disclosure clearly illustrate.

[quote]Finally when we upgrade or update products legal obligations may in some circumstances require that we maintain the ability to provide information in response to a law enforcement or national security request. There are aspects of this debate that we wish we were able to discuss more freely. That's why we've argued for additional transparency that would help everyone understand and debate these important issues.

In a joint statement, Shawn Turner, spokesman for the director of National Intelligence, and Judith Emmel, spokeswoman for the NSA, said:

[quote]The articles describe court-ordered surveillance – and a US company's efforts to comply with these legally mandated requirements. The US operates its programs under a strict oversight regime, with careful monitoring by the courts, Congress and the Director of National Intelligence. Not all countries have equivalent oversight requirements to protect civil liberties and privacy.

They added: "In practice, US companies put energy, focus and commitment into consistently protecting the privacy of their customers around the world, while meeting their obligations under the laws of the US and other countries in which they operate."

by Anonymous

reply 2

07/11/2013

Our government is evil. It is trying to turn us into slaves. Until we return all power to the local level and make Washington, DC a sick museum of how evil can ruin a society then these things will only get worse.

Am I aware that the NSA is logging this thread as a threat?

Yes- but I'm not a simpering coward.

Am I aware that the NSA might use this post against me in a few days/months/years/decades?

Yes, but at least I'm not a pussy who rolled over so the government could fuck me.

Until the NSA/CIA/FBI are neutered and dismantled, anyone who criticizes the government will be targeted.

by Anonymous

reply 3

07/11/2013

[quote]Am I aware that the NSA is logging this thread as a threat?

Actually, they're logging your threads just for cheap laughs.

[quote]Yes- but I'm not a simpering coward.

You are in fact the DL village idiot. But whatever.

[quote]Yes, but at least I'm not a pussy who rolled over so the government could fuck me.

Indeed not. Your bold strategy appears to involve spam posting the shit out of Datalounge with Lew Rockwell posts. Bold strategy you've got there. Can't wait to see how you're going to take on the entire internet.

by Anonymous

reply 4

07/11/2013

No one cares that every email, every website, every search gets logged by the government to be used against you whenever they want?

by Anonymous

reply 6

07/16/2013

R3 R5 and R6 were all over that Wall St crash thread, why is this place turning into a haven for the paranoid crackpots?

by Anonymous

reply 7

07/16/2013

Link, R7?

by Anonymous

reply 8

07/16/2013

R7-

I'm really curious. What thread are you talking about?

by Anonymous

reply 9

07/16/2013

.

by Anonymous

reply 10

07/19/2013

R10 lives on psychophobiac crazy, and has yet to escape.

by Anonymous

reply 11

07/20/2013

Trolldar shows that you are R10, R11. Now what was that you were saying about "psychophobiac crazy?"

by Anonymous

reply 12

07/20/2013

"America does not have a functioning democracy at this point in time," former President Jimmy Carter (shown) said this week, according to a report in the German newspaper Der Spiegel. Carter was quoted as having made that remark at a closed-door meeting of Atlantic Bridge, a research and education organization supporting cooperation between the United States and Great Britain on political, economic, and defense issues. The former president reportedly said the National Security Agency's invasion of privacy has gone too far, as he defended that actions of Edward Snowden, the American now seeking asylum in Russia after leaking classified documents revealing the massive NSA interception of communications between citizens and among government officials worldwide.

by Anonymous

reply 13

07/22/2013

OP, they didn't hand them over that organization can easily get copies of any emails or messages they want and they can probably easily decrypt them.

by Anonymous

reply 14

07/23/2013

R13-

When I saw that today it sent a shiver through me.

When a former president says that you KNOW the government is fucked up and needs to be dismantled.

DC is evil.

by Anonymous

reply 15

07/23/2013

[quote]When I saw that today it sent a shiver through me.

The evil powers of the government-controlled internet reveals that R15 is talking to himself.

Seek professional help, duckie.

by Anonymous

reply 16

07/23/2013

R16-

I thought someone else had posted it too. I knew I had been trying to help you see through your crazy bullshit on other threads, and knew I had posted those remarks.

Please post some disagreement. Something.

by Anonymous

reply 17

07/24/2013

Everyone,

The Amash/Conyers Amendment to curtail NSA spending is up for debate TODAY, Wednesday. Please call your congressperson and encourage them to support the amendment.

by Anonymous

reply 18

07/24/2013

R16-

Now it has a thread where you can suck more government dick defending the murder of children.

by Anonymous

reply 19

07/24/2013

Oh, SNAP R19. You've got my number completely. Such scathing wit.

*snicker*

by Anonymous

reply 20

07/24/2013

Yes, R20, I do.

I love how you refuse to debate the issue, only post witless asides and make a fool of yourself.

Sad.

by Anonymous

reply 21

07/24/2013

As opposed to your brilliant, penetrating analysis that anybody who disagrees with you is a Nazi who sucks government dick? You have a mighty inflated opinion of yourself, cookie.

by Anonymous

reply 22

07/24/2013

R22-

That's not an answer.

Please explain.

by Anonymous

reply 23

07/24/2013

Actually, yes it is, R23. It's every bit as much an answer as your reply at R21, R19, R17, and, well, pretty much your every post on this thread.

As for an "explanation," there's nothing to explain. R22's response is quite clear and easily understood. The fact that you can neither read it not comprehend it is not his problem.

by Anonymous

reply 24

07/24/2013

The Govenment wants to take over everything, and hide the things they don't want us to know.

by Anonymous

reply 25

07/24/2013

Yes, R25

When government ops like R12/24 come here and try to derail the discussion it shows how desperate they are.

Our government is evil and out of control and needs to be (peacefully) disbanded, with all powers returned to the states.

by Anonymous

reply 26

07/24/2013

Yes, because god knows, "Our government is evil. It is trying to turn us into slaves." is such an incredibly valuable discussion to have. And we're just so "desperate" to "derail" that discussion because, well, we're Nazi, socialist, communist, evil, retarded, government-teat-sucker, NSA saboteurs, I guess.

Meanwhile, out here in the real world...

by Anonymous

reply 27

07/24/2013

R27

Thank you for owning your Nazi-esque political views!

Most are too scared to admit they would fit right in with the Stasi!

by Anonymous

reply 28

07/25/2013

Apple will never share anything with the NSA. That's why I use Apple products and services.

by Anonymous

reply 29

07/25/2013

[quote]Thank you for owning your Nazi-esque political views! Most are too scared to admit they would fit right in with the Stasi!

There's this concept called "sarcasm" I'd like to introduce you to, R28.

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